When the Smoke Clears

p r o l o g u e

Standing on what remained of the shed he had just torched, the boy stood motionless, lost in thought. The screams of the girl had attracted the attention of nearby people soon enough to save her life, for that the boy was angry.

He was angry that he had frozen in fear when the sirens had started, angry for letting the crying girl get away.

"Already regretting your actions, Tobias? Or are you just inflating your already too big head?" A girl's voice asked from somewhere behind him.

Turning, he saw that it was Her.

"What are you doing here, Holland? You should be back at the hide out."

"Boss sent me to find you; he's pissed." she replied, eying her nails casually. "What are you looking for? You saw them take the girl away."

"I'm admiring my failure," he growled. She always got under his skin too easily.

"I still don't understand why you did it anyway," she said as she kicked a burned board.

"She needed to be taught that she can't just do whatever and get away with it. There are rules that need to be followed."

"Whatever, we need to return quickly, before you get in even more trouble." She said with what sounded like concern in her voice.

***

"What in the devil's name were you thinking, boy?!" A voice growled at him.

"I was thinking about spiders." Tobias said absently.

"What you did was reckless and stupid. Not to mention highly illegal." The man hollered.

For such a small man he sure is loud, Tobias thought.

"She deserved it."

"Bull, boy."

"She knew; about me, about Holland, about you, about everything. So I had to shut her up. Or show her why it would be a good idea to keep quiet about it."

"Doesn't change the fact that it was attempted murder. And that is unacceptable." The boss said with what sounded like an underlying threat.

"Attempted. It didn't succeed. I wasn't actually trying to kill her. I just wanted to scare her."

"Well that sure got out of hand, boy. You shouldn't have even thought about it."

"But this group is-"

"That's enough!" the man said, but Tobias understood his message clearly: If you cross me again, I will kill you.

Knowing he had only one card left to play, Tobias said, "So I'll confess to it- ALL of it."

The old man narrowed his eyes slowly at the Tobias.

"You wouldn't dare," he said, calling out his bluff.

The boy laughed. "Try me, old man, I have nothing to lose! You made sure of that."

The man sat back in his oversized chair, a slight hint of fear hidden amongst the doubt in his gray eyes. Waving the boy out, he looked down to the papers on his equally enormous desk.

"Oh, and boss, if you ever tell anyone anything about this, I will make sure you are among the first in the body count. Understand?" Tobias spoke over his shoulder. Slamming the door, he walked off in the direction of his house.

***

After Tobias had left the room, he met up with his friend, Holland, and they walked back to his house.

"So, what did you guys talk about?" Holland voice asked. All he did was shrug.

"Let's just say that he's more afraid of me than I am of him." he said as he unlocks the front door to his house.

"Whoa..." Holland breathed out.

"What?" Tobias asks, setting his black backpack on the ground.

"I've never been inside your house before... It's so much bigger on the inside..." she says, turning around in slow circles, trying to see her friend's house in all angles.

"Oh, come on. Let's just go up to my room." he chuckled, dragging the girl up to his room.

"Oh, getting sketchy now, aren't we Toby?" Holland says teasingly, wiggling her eyebrows at Tobias. He laughed loudly, his voice echoing off the walls of his room.

"Haha, you're so funny," he muttered.

"Aw, is the little baby mad?" Holland giggled. Tobias rolled his eyes.

"I'm not a baby, I'm just offended," he said.

"You're the one who-" He cut her off.

"Shh!" Tobias shushed, covering the Holland's mouth with his hand. Quiet creaks could be heard coming from the downstairs. They both stood and approached the door.

"Mom? Is that you?" he called. No answer. He peeked his head out of the doorway, just in time to see a shadow run across the downstairs wall.

"Oh, my gosh. There's someone down there!" Holland said timidly. He shut the door quickly and locked it behind him. A loud crash was heard, and Holland gasped.

"What do we do?!" she whisper-yelled. Tobias looked around in a panic.

"The window!" he said, running over to it and opening it.

"Are you crazy?!" she exclaimed.

"Probably!" Tobias said as he grabbed her hand and jumped out of the window.